Objective:
Identify aroma volatiles in oranges that can supress bitterness and sourness and/or enhance sweetness for creation of an aroma package for use in managing disease-induced bitterness in orange juice products.

Approach:
ARS will partner with a sensory scientist at the University of Florida (UF) Food Science and Human Nutrition Department and psychophysicist at the Dental Department to identify orange aroma volatiles that mask bitterness and/or enhance sweetness using chemical and sensory data from orange juice samples provided by the industry Cooperator and from several years of harvests in the ARS inventory. ARS samples will be analyzed by a consumer sensory panel at UF and a trained sensory panel at ARS. Chemical analyses of volatiles, sugars, acids and limonoids (bitter compounds) will be done by ARS. Chemical and sensory data will then be analyzed using multivariate statistics to identify volatile compounds that mask or enhance sourness, bitterness and sweetness.